A Journey Of Self Discovery

Ryohei watched as Kazuki scarfed down the hamburger steak he made. This was the fourth one, and it seemed that Kazuki was still hungry. 

Geez did those assholes not feed him at all? Ryohei though irately. 

Kazuki had been back home a day now, and literally anything Ryohei made and set in front of his nephew he ate. Was it because of what they did to him that Kazuki was eating so much? Obviously Kazuki ate a lot before, he was a teenage boy after all, but it was noticeably more than it had been originally. Had his metabolism sped up that drastically? Regardless Kazuki didn’t show any signs of stopping anytime soon. 

“Do you want anymore...?” Ryohei asked, even though he already knew the answer would be yes. Kazuki looked up, his mouth full of hamburger steak, and nodded enthusiastically. 

Ryohei turned and began to kneed another hamburger patty in his hand before he put it in the skillet. 

“I can make about three more and that’s all the hamburger there is ok?” Ryohei said turning to Kazuki. He nodded in response. 

The hamburger steak was one of Ryohei’s specialties, and he had been praised for them multiple times growing up and as an adult. He remembered Hinata had been his biggest fan when it came to cooking. 

After a couple of minutes Ryohei placed the three cooked hamburger steaks onto Kazuki’s plate and set it in front of him. Kazuki quickly set to work on devouring those as well. 

Ryohei watched him as he ate and took note of the cat like fangs and sharp teeth that now filled Kazuki’s mouth. How Kazuki hadn’t bitten his tongue or lips inhaling the food was beyond Ryohei. 

“Ow!” 

“Are you ok? What happened?” Ryohei asked concerned. 

“Yeah I’m fine, I just bit my bottom lip. Mm...it’s bleeding a lot...” Kazuki mumbled awkwardly grasping a napkin and holding it against his mouth. 

Ryohei narrowed his eyes somewhat. He had noticed that whenever Kazuki spoke he made sure to either look away or mumble a little. Ryohei hadn’t noticed at first that Kazuki was purposefully hiding his teeth, and avoiding talking as much as he could, but now that he had it was impossible not to. Was it possibly because Kazuki was trying to hide his teeth? 

“Hey Kazuki.” 

“Hm?” 

“Is there a reason why you’re hiding your teeth? I’m not going to judge you or anything, so you don’t really need to.” Ryohei continued. 

Kazuki looked a little uncomfortable, and his ears flattened against his head but he nodded. “...You noticed huh? I was hoping you wouldn’t.” 

Ryohei wiped his hands off with a towel and moved to sit down across the table from Kazuki. Ryohei had a concerned look on his face. Kazuki remained quiet for a moment before he pulled the napkin away from his lip and sighed. “I-I was afraid you’d be scared of me if I showed them too much when I talked.” Kazuki stated softly. 

Ryohei reached to grip Kazuki’s right hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Kazuki pulled his hand back. 

“Kazuki you don’t ever have to worry about that. I will never be afraid of you or think of you as anything else but my nephew. I love you regardless. I always will.” Ryohei smiled warmly at him. Of course Kazuki was well aware of this but a part of him still couldn’t help but worry. He loved his uncle dearly and he knew that even this wouldn’t change how Ryohei felt about him. But...he still couldn’t shake the feeling.

“Uncle Ryohei...do you think I’ll be able to go back to school? Like this I mean. I’m kinda scary looking...” Kazuki asked slowly. 

Ryohei was silent for a moment as he thought. “Of course you’ll be able too. They’re not going to kick you out over something that you had no control or fault over.” 

“But that was before when I was human and well...not...this. A monster I mean.” Kazuki replied looking at his hands. 

“Kazu. You’re not a monster, please don’t call yourself that.” Ryohei said sternly. “You’re still you, and you will always be you. The real monster are the people that did this to you.” 

Kazuki nodded in reply. He could still taste a little blood from his lip but it had mostly stopped bleeding. Of course just a small cut like that was nothing compared to when he first got these new, sharp fangs and teeth. He had bit his tongue, cheeks and bottom lip a lot.

“You know...these hurt when I got them. I wasn’t drugged at that time so I remember it pretty well.” Kazuki started. “I had actually just woken up from a round of experiments and uh. My-my teeth just started falling out. It was so scary, I thought I was going nuts at first. Then my jaws and gums just started aching and these grew in pretty quickly after. I couldn’t really talk or eat for a good week after they grew in, my mouth hurt so much. So they just took to calling me by my number I guess. Well they did before but they called me by my actual name a couple of times. But after I grew these, well my ears and eyes had changed by that point too, they just stopped. They were trying to make me feel less like me I guess.” 

Ryohei stayed silent as Kazuki talked, and listened intently to what he said. He hadn’t been aware that Kazuki was drugged but it made sense. The more and more he learned from the snippets Kazuki told him, the more horrible it sounded and the angrier Ryohei got. Ryohei was never one for fighting or getting into fights, but god have mercy on those poor bastards if he ever got a hold of them. 

“It all hurt.” Kazuki added with a frown. Ryohei wasn’t exactly sure how to respond to that. Instead his gave his biggest grin and said, “You’re home now, safe and sound. They will never touch you or come near you again. If they try they’ll have to get through me.” 

Kazuki smiled weakly at that, but he appreciated Ryohei trying to cheer him up. “Thank you Uncle Ryohei. You always know how to cheer me up!”